Trucker Protest a Total Failure

That much-ballyhooed trucker protest that planned to shut down the beltway around Washington, DC and arrest members of Congress turned out to be a complete dud. In the end, less than 50 truckers showed up, a third of them in pickup trucks, and barely even managed to slow down traffic.

The “Ride for the Constitution” was planned in hopes of drawing hundreds – if not thousands – of truckers from states near Washington, D.C., for a three-day protest beginning Friday morning.

Organizers said they hoped to shut down portions of the federal government that remained open and expressed vaguely worded plans to arrest President Barack Obama or lawmakers who support his agenda, but were still insisting the plan wasn’t a hoax just hours before it was scheduled to commence.

Traffic cameras from the area occasionally showed three semis driving side-by-side, slowing traffic, but a spokeswoman said conditions were basically normal for weekday traffic during comparably rainy conditions.

A photo showing heavy traffic on a two-lane stretch of interstate purported to be from the protest was circulated dozens of times on Twitter, drawing additional comments of support, but the image was actually taken in May during a Make-A-Wish truck convoy in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Same thing is going to happen on Nov. 19 when Larry Klayman thinks thousands of Americans are going to show up with him at the White House to demand the resignation and arrest of President Obama because his “citizen grand jury” found him guilty of….well, something.

What’s the over/under on how many people show up for Klayman’s fantasy? I’d be willing to put a few bucks on his getting less than the 45 the truckers got.

kantalope

It is encouraging that they get fewer trucks trying to take health insurance away from children than when trying to give wishes to children.

unbound

Nobody noticed. We have 3 trucks lined up going too slow anyways, and nutjobs with flags and stickers aren’t all the at uncommon around here either.

Even more of a non-event as the Ted Cruz nonsense downtown.

Chiroptera

Wow! That’s probably too few to cover all the exits when Obama and the evil pro-Obamacare lawmakers snuck out of town. No wonder they couldn’t arrest anyone!

felidae

Any one who believes that an independent trucker can make a decent living in today’s deregulated environment is delusional or ignorant, so anybody with any brains has left the occupation, leaving only the stupid. And, since it is stupid to waste fuel and time on something like this, it leaves only the stupidest of the stupid to join this protest

http://www.holytape.etsy.com holytape

They couldn’t cause traffic jams on the 495? That’s amazing in and of itself. They should protest more often.

eric

@6 – I believe that part of the original reason for the drive was in fact to protest the working conditions in the industry. But that kind of got overshadowed by the wingnuttieness.

lofgren

I’ve worked with truckers. I know truckers. Truckers are friends of mine. Pickups are not trucks.

http://en.uncyclopedia.co/wiki/User:Modusoperandi Modusoperandi

Still, even with just 50 trucks, it was a huge success. Didn’t you hear? The federal government shut down. I know!

John Hinkle

…but the image was actually taken in May during a Make-A-Wish truck convoy in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Of course, it was touted on Faux Noise as “Truckers’ protest is getting underway [any moment now]” and used as a hook on which to hang more lies about the Affordable Care Act or, as Republicans prefer to call it, Obamacare.”

jefferylanam

There’s also a photo being sent around that is claimed to be of a lot of trucks jamming a freeway. It’s actually of a 2007 truckers’ strike in Italy.

Rip Steakface

They couldn’t cause traffic jams on the 495? That’s amazing in and of itself. They should protest more often.

Yeah, they should come protest on the I-5 corridor, it would be great.

colnago80

Re holytape @ #7

Traffic on the Washington Beltway is down somewhat due to the government shutdown.

Randomfactor

The tried to gather in Washington, but due to the shutdown the Government Positioning Socialism system was down. But you should’ve seen what mayhem they caused in Toronto!

busterggi

Looks like their trucknuts must have been cut off.

Ichthyic

Any one who believes that an independent trucker can make a decent living in today’s deregulated environment is delusional or ignorant

or living in Australia, which AFAICT is the only place where you can still make a decent living as a trucker, due to the huge mining industry mostly.

many kiwis have left their careers here to jump the pond to be a trucker for a few years in OZ. no kidding.

won’t last much longer though, even with Abott artificially propping up the mining industry for as long as he is able to.

zbeeblebrox

FEWER than 50 truckers…

Ichthyic

A photo showing heavy traffic on a two-lane stretch of interstate purported to be from the protest was circulated dozens of times on Twitter, drawing additional comments of support, but the image was actually taken in May during a Make-A-Wish truck convoy in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

just goes to show that this entire right wing agenda has always been based on nothing but lies.

media failure in not continuously pointing this out, though Rachel Maddow at least tries.

http://www.facebook.com/den.wilson d.c.wilson

A photo showing heavy traffic on a two-lane stretch of interstate purported to be from the protest was circulated dozens of times on Twitter, drawing additional comments of support, but the image was actually taken in May during a Make-A-Wish truck convoy in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Because who wouldn’t be fooled by photos taken on a sunny day on US-222 in Lancaster being represented as I-495 on a rainy day in the DC Metro area? That’s right up there with Austin Powers remarking that England looks nothing at all like Southern California.

bastionofsass

But the rain…I’m sure that must have put a damper on the protest. You can’t expect to have folks show up to snarl traffic, arrest members of Congress, and put the President on trial when it’s raining.

Damn Obama and his ability to control the weather.

Ichthyic

Because who wouldn’t be fooled by photos taken on a sunny day on US-222 in Lancaster being represented as I-495 on a rainy day in the DC Metro area?

what is really interesting is the number of people that ARE, simply because of preexisting psychological biases relating to their personal tribal beliefs.

Ichthyic

Damn Obama and his ability to control the weather.

He just uses his time machine combined with a thorough knowledge of chaos theory to do that.

anyone can.

what? you don’t have a time machine?

*sigh*

siveambrai

If the government shut down every time 495 came to a standstill it would never be running. Heck it was at a standstill today!

http://polrant@blogspot.com democommie

“what? you don’t have a time machine?”

I actually have a timeshare for a time machine.

dingojack

Well of course the trucker’s protest brought Washtinton to a stand still – here just look at his photo.

Protesting, you are doing it wrong. If it was 50 French truckers there would have been mayhem.

Note: I’m not being anti-French, quite the opposite. When French workers get pissed they strike and demonstrate in spectacular fashion!

http://polrant@blogspot.com democommie

“Trucker Protest a Total Failure ”

That’s a bit unkind, Ed:

Truth is, the Teabagger Truckathon pushed the “Dog bites man” stories offa the front page with their, “Man bites dog, dog turns out to have a 9Mic in his belly holster and busts a cap in man’s ass, HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”.

blf

I’m not being anti-French, quite the opposite. When French workers get pissed they strike and demonstrate in spectacular fashion!

(I’m not French but I live in France.) Oh boy, do they! French strikes are an art-form all in themselves. It’s amazing…

http://polrant@blogspot.com democommie

@30:

Can you imagine what would happen if a bunch of teabaggers wound up in Paris in August when the city is half deserted? They’d prolly think that the commies had taken over.

Karen Locke

Trucking is actually a hard job. Husband went to trucking school so that he can legally drive our dumptruck (don’t ask), and he is in awe of actual big-rig truckers. You have to be very sensitive to the needs of your vehicle, especially when hauling cargo. I’m glad to see so many hard-working truckers NOT taking the bait and converging on DC. These people aren’t stupid.